Suns Deal Leesburg First Home Loss

LEESBURG, Fla.- The DeLand Suns extended their winning streak to four, handing the Leesburg Lightning their first home loss of the season, 7-0.

DeLand struck first for the third consecutive road game, putting two runs on the board in the second inning. The Suns loaded the bases with no outs before Noah Prudencio (Florida State College) drew a four-pitch walk to score Akhil Nimmala (Undecided) and give DeLand its first run of the game. Two pitches later, Torin Foley (Embry-Riddle) lifted a sacrifice fly to right field, allowing Boomer Rogozinski (Stetson) to barely beat the throw home and score.

The DeLand bats were kept quiet until the sixth inning, when the Suns added another run. Singles by Shane Thomas (Undecided) and Akhil Nimmala put two runners aboard with one out. Rogozinski then hit a sacrifice fly to center field, scoring Thomas from third and extending the DeLand lead to 3-0.

The Suns capped off the seven-run performance by matching a season high with four runs in the eighth inning. With the bases loaded, Prudencio recorded his second RBI of the night with a sacrifice fly to left field, scoring Nimmala from third. A few pitches later, Foley added two more RBIs, driving in Rogozinski and Nate Ricko (Pasco-Hernando State). A Richie Collazo (Eastern Florida State) single plated Foley to cap the scoring for DeLand.

On the pitching side, the Suns' staff turned in its best outing of the season. Ethan Diaz (Bethune-Cookman) tossed five innings of three-hit, scoreless baseball to earn the win. Ryan Kelley (Rollins) and John Carroll (Navy) combined for four innings of one-hit, scoreless relief, with Carroll earning his second save of the season.

Offensively, several Suns extended impressive streaks. Nimmala pushed his hitting streak to six games and his on-base streak to 10 games. Rogozinski extended his hitting streak to five games, while Thomas stretched his on-base streak to 10 games and his run-scoring streak to three consecutive games.

With the win, DeLand improves to 5-5 on the season, while Leesburg falls to 9-2.

The Suns will return to action on June 12 at home as they continue their series with the Lightning.

J.C. Fox (Mississippi Christian University)